Henry Mouton, while a member of the state Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, waged an all-out lobbying assault in the months after Hurricane Katrina to force the closing of the Old Gentilly Landfill in New Orleans. In return, he pocketed $463,970 from a rival landfill owner, according to a federal indictment issued Friday.

The Times-Picayune archiveTrucks enter the Old Gentilly Landfill on Nov. 15, 2005, after it was reopened to accept Hurricane Katrina debris.

The indictment identifies the person behind the money only as "co-conspirator A." But the document's details, along with other public records, provide evidence pointing to Fred Heebe or his stepfather, Jim Ward, who own the River Birch Inc. landfill company that the FBI raided Sept. 22.

The grand jury charged Mouton with eight counts of conspiracy, receiving illegal payoffs and lying to federal agents. (Read PDF of indictment.) It is the first indictment connected to a sprawling investigation of Jefferson Parish government corruption during former Parish President Aaron Broussard's administration.

Federal authorities launched that inquiry in November 2009, eventually subpoenaing documents regarding River Birch. That summer the company had inked a $160 million deal to dispose of most household waste from unincorporated Jefferson Parish and the town of Jean Lafitte. In December 2009, The Times-Picayune reported that Dawn Whitmer, the wife of Broussard's top aide, Tim Whitmer, had been handling a health insurance contract for River Birch.

Broussard and Whitmer resigned in January 2010. Last week, Broussard and his ex-wife, Karen Parker, who had a parish job in his administration, received target letters warning that they could be indicted for wire fraud, conspiracy and misuse of federal funds.

Mouton didn't return phone calls or a message left on his Facebook account Friday. Heebe, his lawyers and his spokesman also did not return calls. A call to Ward was not returned.

Then-Gov. Mike Foster appointed Mouton to the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission in 2003. The payoffs from co-conspirator A began four months later, according to the indictment, and peaked in the months after Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. Mouton left the commission in 2008 but continued receiving checks from his benefactor until April 16, 2010, the indictment alleges.

The indictment paints Mouton as bent on closing the Old Gentilly Landfill, a long-dormant dump that the state Department of Environmental Quality reopened in September 2005 to collect the inordinate amount of debris left in Katrina's wake.

Federal authorities accused Mouton, as a state official, of writing at least 17 U.S. senators on Nov. 4, 2005, to keep that landfill shuttered. That same day, he collected $2,000 -- an allegedly typical amount for such checks -- from a company identified as W. Inc., "to influence and reward him for his official action," the indictment states.

"The Gentilly Dump is not only an environmental disaster in the making," Mouton wrote that day to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, "it is also an embarrassment to the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans for authorizing this nightmare to develop and continue."

That letter, which can be found in the Department of Environmental Quality's records, was sent in an e-mail that Mouton copied to fredheebe@fredheebe.com. No one responded Friday to an e-mail sent to that address.

Mouton is accused of lobbying far beyond Capitol Hill, contacting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and even federal law enforcement. He wrote to the FBI and, in a Nov. 1, 2005, instance described in the indictment, to then-U.S. Attorney Donald Washington in the Western District of Louisiana directly comparing Gentilly's cost to River Birch's.

"Gentilly Landfill is charging $3.50 per CY ton while River Birch is charging $2.50, which was the Pre Katrina price so this is costing the Taxpayers MORE money," he wrote.

Several times he demanded an FBI investigation of the Old Gentilly Landfill. According to the indictment, Mouton wrote to an agent on March 1, 2006, that "other landfills, Hiway 90 (sic) C and D Inc., River Birch Inc. and KV Landfill have enough capacity to take at least 10 times the amount of Waste/Debris that DEQ is estimating."

The Highway 90 landfill in Waggaman, which collects construction and demolition debris, also is owned by Heebe and Ward. The KV Landfill is in Killona.

For his efforts, Mouton allegedly collected almost weekly checks for seven years from companies owned or operated by co-conspirator A and others who operate businesses identified in the indictment as W.C.S., Inc., W. Inc, D&A and A.P. LLC.

While the full names of the companies are not listed in the indictment, the September search warrant for River Birch's offices listed six companies in which the FBI had interest: Dangle & Associates, Anne's Properties, Water Front Properties, Ring Associates, B & C Contractors, and Big Bang Properties. Heebe has since gone to court to demand that federal authorities return some records seized from another of his companies, Willow Inc.

A message left for Anne Dangle, a manager listed in state records for Dangle & Associates, Anne's Properties and Big Bang Properties, went unreturned Friday. Ring Associates, Water Front Properties and B & C Contractors share with River Birch the 2000 Belle Chasse Highway address that the FBI raided, according to corporate records held by the Louisiana secretary of state.

While not charged with tax evasion, the indictment says Mouton also left a total of $252,314 in income off his 2006, 2007 and 2008 tax returns, offering further evidence that he was hiding "illegal payoffs," the indictment states.

The FBI interviewed Mouton in February 2010, according to the indictment. It says he lied when he told agents that he had no business relationship with a landfill company, that he wasn't reimbursed for his efforts to close the Old Gentilly Landfill, that a wealthy friend from Mobile, Ala. -- not "co-conspirator A" -- paid for a helicopter trip to photograph activity at the dump and that $2,000 he received from "co-conspirator A" was for building and air conditioning work.

Mouton, 54, lives in Lafayette.

He was a major supporter of and fund raiser for Louisiana Honor Air, a Lafayette-based nonprofit created in 2007 to fly aging military veterans from across the state to Washington to see their namesake World War II Memorial. Because Honor Air relied on donations and each trip cost about $65,000, Mouton regularly spoke to civic organizations about the group's mission and tenaciously sought news media attention, recruiting reporters to accompany the veterans on the trips.

"We've been blessed by a lot of people," he told The Times-Picayune during one such trip in 2009. By then, the group had flown about 1,800 veterans to see the memorial.

Mouton has some history in Jefferson Parish. In 2000, before he was a state commissioner, a company he represented, Star Service Inc., lobbied the School Board, said Parish Councilman Chris Roberts, a former board member. In July 2000, the board awarded Star Service $948,000 contract to maintain climate controls at 10 schools.

After the BP oil disaster last year, Mouton sent letters offering parish officials his help in cleaning up the area, Parish President John Young said.